..........................Wonjun Choi..........................


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Project (Timeline):
Wonjun and Eric's Timeline of Late Chosun


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Summary of the debate over Queen Min
Yes, they did reform:
- Korea had independent society from other countries and they were able to unify all the classes.
- Education is allowed to everyone.
- People now are able to become high officer by putting efforts to it

Maybe:
- Korea is not that sovereign

No, they failed to reform
- In the reality, people who does arts and other things rather than studying are looked down
- Everyone goes to academy but people who don't have money to go to academy are almost excluded from the competition
- Over heated competition

Notes on Queen Min
Queen Min was born in 1851 from a powerless noble family and she married with king Kojong at age of 14. The reason that she was selected as queen was because there has been many incidents between Queen’s families and the king throughout the Chosun history so Kojong’s father Taewongun didn’t want queen with powerful backgrounds so his authority cannot be challenged. However, even Queen Min didn’t have powerful background, she was the one who usually convinced King Kojong to do certain things like foreign policies. She didn’t have power at first time but people who were against Taewongun’s policies gathered around Queen Min and she became one of the person who has strong influence in government. She tried to buy time by making Russia, China, and Japanese fight each other but Japanese knew about it and eventually assassinated her. Also she was energetic and dynamic woman (we never know the truth). (Thailand was going through same process. *playing against each other*)

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Document II : The Charter Oath of 1868

By this oath we set up as our aim the establishment of the national weal on a broad basis and the framing of a constitution and laws.
1. Deliberative assemblies shall be widely established and all matters decided by public discussion.
2. All classes, high and low, shall unite in vigorously carrying out the administration of affairs of state.
3. The common people, no less than the civil and military officials, shall each be allowed to pursue his own calling so that there may be no discontent.
4. Evil customs of the past shall be broken off and everything based upon the just laws of Nature.
5. Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.

Questions:
1. How are these documents alike? Be specific in showing exactly how they are similar.
- the five oath mentioned above are alike in a sense that they are mean to change the traditions and adopt foreign cultures and systems. The 2nd oath, no more class systems, the 4rd oath, no more evil customs, and the 5th oath, adopte foreign knowledges are all trying to change the traditional ways of doing things to how out side worlds are doing

2. How are these documents different? Be specific in showing how exactly they are different.
- even oaths shares same ideas, some of them are different than others. for example, the 1st oath says, “all matters decided by public(the people) discussion” but according to the 3rd oath, “the people” in the “public” are no one less than civil and military officials, meaning people who are less than those people are not considered as part of public.

3. What, ultimately, is their purpose?
- just like the other countries who opened their door to foreign nations, the ultimate goal was to adopt the foreign ideas and throw away evil traditions to modernize their own countries.

4. These were very lofty goals for both people to try to achieve. To what degree do you feel the Koreans and the Japanese were able to achieve their objectives?
- for the most part, Koreans and Japanese were able to modernize their country. However, the first oath which states all matters are mean to decided by the public is not achieved. Korea was still absolute monarchy (even Japanese took the power) and Japan was almost in military dictatorships. But they did unify all the classes and sought knowledge throughout the world.

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Russo-Japanese War (5/8/11)


1. Do artistic renditions or photographs depict the heroics of war better

- yes, both renditions and photographs, especially artistic renditions, can be used to promote or publicize a political cause or view point.

2. Do artistic renditions or photographs depict the horrors of war better? (Consider all photographs of war that you have seen, both historical and contemporary)

- it depends on whom and why the person is making artistic renditions or capture photographs. For example, there was few scenes that actually took pictures of dead bodies after massacre or battle and it showed very horrible, maybe disgusting, pictures but on the other hand, there was also artistic renditions (wood block print) that portrayed their own nation as victorious.


3. How does the medium affect the message? Can we say that, "[T]he medium is the message"?

- medium definitely affects the message no matter it’s right or wrong. It is very hard to say that medium “is” and “is not” the message it self because medium does show people what is going on out there and sometimes they even shows misbehaviors or corruption of the government but in most case, they are being controlled by the government and often only try to tell people good things. But considering the fact that people can’t actually go to the actual place, what they see on medium “is” the message to them.

4. Why is 1905 such a turning point in Japanese and World history? How might history have been different had Japan lost the Russo-Japanese War?

- To japanese in year 1905, it was the year of when Japan achieved victory for the first time against the strong western power and made base to expend their empire further in mainland Asia. This also led to second part of World War II, Pacific War. Because Japan achieved victory against Russia, they were now able to colonize Korea and advance to Manchuria (Chinese war defeated before Russo-Japanese War). But due to Japan’s invasion on Manchuria province, it created tension between USA and Japan and made the USA to finally cut the oil trade route with Japan. When oil trade ended between the USA and Japan, Japan decides to attack Pearl Harbor and that led involvement of the USA into World War II. If Japan lost to Russia during Russo-Japanese war, Japan might have been end up as Russia’s colony and lose all their power to start the Pacific War in the later time. Also, Russia would be end up turning entire Asia into communism because communist revolution in Russia did not start long after Russo-Japanese War.

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1. How are the Chinese soldiers portrayed in these prints? The Japanese soldiers?

In these prints, Chinese soldiers are portrayed as very ugly people who are always seemed to be killed by Japanese soldiers. Also, japanese officers appear to be heroic people because they are portrayed as someone who would go front line and fight for their country (forward lyne pose with nice uniforms)


2. Look at the weapons used by each side, are they different? How? Does this tell us anything about Japanese technological advancement?

In all the prints, Chinese soldiers only have spears and any weapons before when westerners came. It is trying say that Japan has higher technologies than China who they always had to study in the past. Also, it tells us about the Japanese had strong military rifles technology, well trained military officers, and organized army at that time.


3. Why do sports often became symbolic battlegrounds between nations?

Sports especially some thing like baseball was really famous usually in all countries. Each countries has their pride in their own base ball team and sometimes all the aggressive feelings towards certain country is express in the base ball match by hoping their team would beat the other team. .Why does this matter to a people? What do they find so gratifying in the experience of witnessing their team beat another on the arena of sport?

4. Is imperialism/colonialism simly about military and political controlling another nation, or is it also about proving one's self perceived cultural superiority over another?

It depends. Because if it’s talking about imperialism and colonialism in physically, it’s about control of military and political power of the nation. But if it’s about the people in the colonies, then imperialism and colonialism would be cultural superiority over the colonies.